Our Favorite Souvenirs

We do almost zero shopping on our trips – I’d much rather spend the money on amazing food, unique experiences and nice hotels.  But, we make it a point to seek out one Christmas ornament from each place we visit for our tree in the den.  I was looking for something else in the guest room closet this morning when I found our stash from 2017.  It was so much fun to look back on our travels.

Butterfly ball from Dollywood
Palmetto tree from Columbia, South Carolina
Skyline ball from Denver, Colorado
Bird house from Rock City in Chattanooga, Tennessee
Grand Ole Opry ball from Nashville, Tennessee
Peabody duck from Memphis, Tennessee
Silver Maple Leaf from Mount Snow, Vermont
Disney Wonder ship from the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration cruise
Kate Spade silver gift bow from New York

We started our ornament collection on our honeymoon and have been adding to it for 15 years.  Pulling them out every year is such a treat, as well as a trip down memory lane.

I have noted either on every ornament or on the box what year it was from.

This is just one of a thousand reasons why I so look forward to pulling out the Christmas bins each year!  I’d love to know if there is something special YOU collect on your trips!!

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13 thoughts on “Our Favorite Souvenirs

  1. I love this idea and the ornaments you’ve found are gorgeous! We have tried to collect ornaments from vacations too but sometimes have a hard time finding ones that are pretty and the right size. Do you have any tips you could share about where you’ve had luck finding them on your travels? What kind of shops do look for?

  2. I adore your ornaments from this year! We do the same thing (and have been for 20 years) and I just can hardly stand the joy that comes from seeing the treasures year after year. Favorite. xoxo

  3. I collect ornaments when I travel too. Jen a couple of places I had to get key chains. But with a bow and a snowflake they work.

  4. We do the same. When you head to D.C., stop by the White House Visitor’s Center. There you will find the current year’s official Christmas ornament as well as years past. They are stunning!

  5. My new boyfriend when I was 15 years old gave me a silver angel Christmas ornament that first Christmas. Little did I know he would give me a new ornament every year for the next 41 years! Once we were married and started traveling we also picked an ornament to represent the places we have been. But the first angel ornament is always the first we place on our tree. I can’t wait until next Sunday when we will hang it together for the 34th time! One unique thing my mother in law does is she has created wreaths with her travel ornaments attached….and placed them around her house. One is decorated with ornaments from each of her mission trips…so meaningful!

  6. Many years ago we did magnets and then began doing ornaments. We also love pulling them out each year! We have done a couple of keychains as ornaments and gotten some online when not able to find any during the trips. I have many charms for my bracelet that also can be found online.

  7. So nice seeing your palmetto tree from South Carolina and remembering our fun lunch when you visited! I collect ornaments from our trips also. A great way to keep the memories of fun vacations. Can’t wait to see your trees this year!

  8. I have started collecting Christmas ornaments from our travels as well! Our ornaments are so special to me, and make decorating for Christmas a real celebration of our year. I also love collecting jewelry from places we visit, and crosses to hang on the wall. I’m big on collections, haha! But they truly make me happy and help me remember o many wonderful times with my family!

  9. We like to take a trip to celebrate our anniversary each year and on that trip we purchase a souvenir that goes with the traditional anniversary gift for that year. For example, the traditional first anniversary gift is paper, so on our first anniversary trip we bought a cookbook (paperback) together from the destination we visited. I love this tradition and I hope we do it forever!

  10. We do the same thing!! When we put up the tree on Saturday, it was fun to reflect back on the places we have been– and of course, when we put up the ornaments we got from France back in 2008, Andrew kept asking, you went to France? He does that every year and he wants to hear all about it. And then we watched Home Alone and he was like- mom, I want to go to Paris for Christmas. I was like, me too, buddy, me too. But we have to save money for a while to go on that trip! (plus, to be honest, I’m sort of scared to travel abroad these days!)

    But it is always to fun to pull out the ornaments from over the last 15 or so years (because we have been married 15 years too) and see all of the places we have been… this year we just had a beach ornament to add and then one from the Smoky Mountains since we didn’t go a bunch of places this year in preparation for the big Disney cruise coming up in June! :)

    You are making me want to do a insta story or a post about ours!!

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